Hey, how are you doing?
Very well, thank you.
We've asked each of our speakers today to submit five images,
and these images will represent their work, their personalities, their inspirations.
Dominic, tell us a little bit about the first thing you brought in for us.
This was a commission for Create 2012, and they commissioned five designers
to create a souvenir of East London.
So I thought about, well, in East London it doesn't really have the typical grand buildings
that you might get little souvenirs of the Central London and West London,
but we do have a huge amount of creative makers in the thousands,
making everything from, you know, not only objects, but food and songs and performances.
And so what I decided to do was to celebrate that fact.
And so I visited 21 historical, skillful, creative makers
and simply recorded the sound of them making, of them working.
And then I put it onto a vinyl record, which was also made in Hackney.
And yeah, that's how it started.
This actually started on Twitter. I'm on Twitter at Dominic Wilcox.
And I tweeted, I want to race against a 3D printer to make the same thing.
So a sort of man versus machine match.
And then there was a curator, Beatrice Galilee.
She saw this tweet and said, OK, let's do it. Why don't you do this in Milan?
I've got this thing. So I went over to this La Rina Shente,
which is a big department store, and in the centre there was this competition
between me against the 3D printer to make a model of the Domo,
which is a big cathedral in Milan.
And yeah, so I got dressed up a bit like Rocky, and there was Rocky Music.
You don't get much performance in the design world.
You get it in the art world, but not so much performances in design.
And yeah, so that was quite enjoyable.
Then I came back and did it at the V&A again,
but that was St. Paul's Cathedral made out of marzipan.
And who won?
They put it to the public vote,
and obviously the public are on the side of mankind,
and I was the representative of mankind.
So I won again.
So was that you won in terms that you were the first to finish,
or you won in terms you made the best request?
No, in the V&A we had 45 minutes,
but people keep wanting to do interviews with me,
so it was rather unfair I found.
However, yes, no, it was 45 minutes,
and whatever you could make was judged.
The printer here, I think that's about £1,000,
or it's between £500 and £1,000,
you can get a 3D printer connected to your computer,
but the quality's not brilliant.
It's okay, it's not bad,
but I think when the quality goes up
and the price comes down to like an inkjet printer,
then a lot of people don't get them.
But then there's the question of,
do we really want people at home printing off a load of rubbish?
I mean, so yes, I suppose this challenge
was a bit of a symbolism of the human hand
against the computer.
And people talk about it as rapid prototyping,
and I think you've proved that it's not actually rapid.
Well, that was my point.
The ironic thing of rapid prototyping is how slow it is.
Okay, you're known for your drawings.
Tell us about the craft of drawing
and also the statements you make with these drawings.
Well, I mean, I'm not the world's most brilliant draftsman,
but I'll have a go.
And I think what's great about sketching,
as opposed to being on your laptop,
your computer and whatever,
is that it's the nearest thing to your imagination,
to communicate.
If I want to communicate it's an idea to you.
The drawing with the pen,
you still can't beat that pen.
So in my sketchbooks,
I've got lots of sort of inventions
or just ideas of things that...
Why hasn't this been done before?
Well, there's reasons why things haven't been done before.
But something like the family poncho with the multiple heads
or this one at the top here,
because when you go up hills,
I don't like bending my ankle so much.
So I've invented these little heels
that allow you to keep your foot straight.
And this one in the middle, this is reverse bungee jump.
So you just stand at the bottom
and the land actually comes down and bounces.
It's just an alternative way of thinking.
So, you know,
I think we shouldn't be so scared of putting out
ridiculous thoughts.
I think we're all very tight
and worried about what other people think.
Oh, God, I can't say that, can't do that.
But actually from crazy ideas,
maybe something else comes out of it,
which brings us on to the next.
So I was commissioned by this project
called Global Footprint in Northamptonshire.
Northamptonshire is famous for shoemaking.
And the local council are doing some projects.
And I got commissioned to make a pair of shoes.
And I could do whatever I wanted.
And I thought about, you know,
integrating technology into shoes.
You know, that's maybe one area
that we haven't investigated so much.
And then I thought about the Wizard of Oz
and Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
And she has little red shoes.
When she clicks her heels together,
she gets transported back to Kansas.
And I thought, you know,
is it possible to make that real in some way?
So I've done it.
Basically these shoes have got a GPS
in the heel of the shoe.
So the first thing you do is you go on your laptop
and you've got a little piece of software with a map
and you plot on that map where your destination is.
Where you want to go.
And then you connect via USB cable into the left shoe.
And then you press upload to the shoe.
And so that sends the destination to the shoe.
You unplug that, go outside,
and then there's a little switch in the heels.
And when you click your heels together three times,
the GPS starts up.
Now at the front of the...
this right shoe here,
that's got a row of lights.
And that gives an indication of progress.
So it grows, it gets to the bottom.
When you're at the green light, you've arrived.
So it starts with a red.
And then the left shoe,
that's got a little circle of LEDs.
And that points in the direction that you should walk.
So yesterday, it's in every publication.
It's one of those ideas that has just took the imagination.
It's definitely struck a nerve with people.
I don't know anyone who gets on.
Have I got news for you and Good Morning America
with the sort of regularity that you do?
So obviously doing something right.
Thank you.
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